Torchwood iTunes Challenge
by Solstice Zero
Summary: Ten drabbles of the Torchwood variety written to ten random songs. Jack/Ianto, Tosh/Owen.


_**Author's Note:** Hello! Sorry for this going up so late - and for being something that is not an Honest to God Story. I wrote something, read it back, and realized it was horrible, depressing and out-of-character. So here is an idea that I picked up from CosmicalMadison: **The iTunes Challenge**. Here are the rules, nicked from her profile:_

_"1. Pick a character, pairing, or fandom you like.  
2. Turn on your iPod and put it on shuffle.  
3. Write a ficlet related to each song that plays. You only have the timeframe of the song to finish the drabble; you start when the song starts and stop when it's over.  
4. Do ten, then post them."_

_Again, sorry about not having a proper story. (And I'm sorry that some of them really suck.) We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow, hopefully._

_**Warning: **Final drabble has **MAJOR SPOILERS** for CoE Day Four.  
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**Orba Square – Perfect Timing**

Ianto woke up to the bars of morning light falling over his face. The sight was entirely unfamiliar – he was used to waking up before the sun had even risen, much less reached his window. He rolled over and picked up his mobile to check the time – no way he'd get to work before -

There was one text message waiting for him.

_Date: Nov 19, 6:41am_  
_Turned off your alarm. You're too cute when you sleep.  
Come in when you wake up. Bring coffee.  
From: Jack_

- - -

**Something Corporate – Little**

"He's just – it's amazing, Ianto! The things you could see with him. The things you could learn. The places the Doctor would take you, if you just let him."

Ianto stood with his arms folded, leaning against Jack's desk. "I understand."

Jack looked up at him. "I don't think you can. I could travel time and space long before I met him. But he changed all of it for me. He made it amazing again."

Ianto let a small grin eek out onto his mouth. He repeated, "I understand."

Jack laughed, sitting back. "Have you been traveling in space and time and not telling me?"

Ianto came around to Jack's side of the desk and sat on a clear space.

"No," he said, now fully grinning. "I met you."

- - -

**The Decemberists – Cocoon**

Everything Jack saw, everywhere Jack went, was a graveyard.

It wasn't just the Earth. Everything. Just dirt, just stone, just dull and lifeless and cold. After all he had done – every death he had caused, intentionally or unintentionally – it all came down to that.

And if everything was dead, what was he?

Just some other kind of death. Not dead of body. Never dead of body, no matter how many times he tried. But dead of heart. And he could run from that forever and never leave it behind. All of that guilt. All of that death. It clung.

So he could walk through the ruins of Vesuvius, and he could see the reality of it: those forms caught in stone are all any of us are. We take a shape and leave it in the earth. We are filled in and molded over. Atoms, molecules, all are reused, recycled into new organisms. Every second, Jack was breathing the dead.

Because the world was a graveyard. The universe was a graveyard.

And he walked through it forever. Alone.

- - -

**Regina Spektor – Better**

Ianto hissed in pain as Jack touched his back. Jack retracted his hand, looking guilty. "Sorry," he said, angling his neck to get a look at the gashes across Ianto's shoulders. Weevil attack. Jack had tried his best to patch them but, well – he was no Owen.

"It's all right." Ianto settled in the bed on his stomach. "It's going to hurt like hell for a while, though."

Jack smiled suddenly, leaning over Ianto. "I'll kiss it better."

Ianto laughed.

Jack pressed his lips lightly to the tender places around the wounds, and Ianto just sighed. That was Jack.

- - -

**Pomplamoose – Nature Boy**

Jack thought of Ianto as learned. Wise, sort of. And that intrigued him.

Ianto didn't think of Jack as wise. He was hundreds (thousands, now?) of years old, but he never seemed to have learned the benefits of self-imposed silence. Ianto knew those benefits.

But Jack had learned something in that time; that to love is better than any other thing. Physical, emotional. The greatest thing.

- - -

**Snow Patrol – Run**

It was the running; God, Ianto loved it. Whatever he had said to Tosh in that basement, it meant nothing now; Ianto loved the chase, loved the flight, the pounding of shoes to concrete.

And loved Jack next to him, that same high color in his cheeks, that same total, wonderful fit of nighttime and running from anything, everything.

The warehouse exploded behind them with a huge sound, a huge wave of heat rolling out in all directions, catching them up, making them stop and turn, making them stare backwards at the tower of flames.

Jack looked at him, the fire reflected in his eyes, and smiled, that exhilarated smile, the one that Ianto knew was on his own face.

Ianto reached out and pulled Jack into a kiss, both of them half-laughing, half catching their breath, but still needing that touch, in the face of all of the fire, the light, the wonderful, heady moment of not being dead and everything being all right, all right, all right.

It was gorgeous. It was theirs.

Ianto pulled away, looking at Jack with that unchanged expression, that victory cheer.

"We have the strangest dates."

- - -

**Jonathon Coulton – Code Monkey**

Tosh had other interests. She wasn't chained to her computer. She liked – working? Pool? She liked other things!

She liked Owen, certainly.

She sidled up next to him, watching with half-feigned interest as he dissected a rather horrible alien specimen. "What is it?"

"Jack said the name, but I can't pronounce it." He looked at her. "I call it the Bug Thing. Makes my job easier."

"Do you – uh – need anything?"

"You have medical training?"

"Can't say that I do."

"Then you can't do this for me. So, no."

Tosh smiled hesitantly, then started to slip away.

"Thanks, though." Owen said. He smiled.

Tosh returned it.

- - -

**Blaqk Audio – Where Would You Like Them Left?**

Jack grinned, pinning Ianto to a wall. The others were gone. "You're damn pretty in that suit."

Ianto carefully arranged his face to his formal expression. "This suit, sir?"

"Yes." Jack took the end of his tie and traced his fingers up to the knot. "I like this suit." He pulled the knot free.

"I can give you the name of my tailor." His expression was slipping – he could feel the laugh at the back of his teeth.

"I can think of something better you can give me," Jack said, and kissed him.

The suit was soon forgotten.

- - -

**Final Fantasy – Your Light Is Spent**

Ianto rolled to find a comfortable position in Jack's tiny bed. He didn't know why they insisted on sleeping there. Well, he did. They could hardly make it out of the hub, sometimes. Jack's fault.

He looked at Jack – from this close proximity, it wasn't difficult. And, as always, he was surprised. When Jack slept, it was remarkably similar to the way he looked when he was dead. But he woke up easier. First, a smile. Then his eyes sliding open. Not the gasp and cry that accompanied coming back to life.

Ianto preferred the sleeping. He couldn't imagine what Jack dreamt about, but the waking was pleasant to see.

- - -

**Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek**

It had only just started. Everything – God, everything. The very beginning of whatever they were going to become. And then this.

Jack held Ianto, looking down into his face, not ready yet, not ready to lose another person – there had to be something, something he could do. So many others had come back. Owen, Suzie. Why not Ianto?

But Ianto looked up at him. Tears in his eyes. And he knew it was over. Whatever had just started, it was over.

Ianto said, "It was – good, yeah?"

And Jack had to bite back the huge wave of gratitude, of sadness, of horror at everything that was happening.

"Yeah," he said. It was good.


End file.
